Pensamientos

Part of my work here in Peru is to open people´s minds to new cultures. I feel like I´ve accomplished that goal with the 6 men with whom I was working yesterday. In starting this library project, we want to use a space in the municipality that was previously a storage room. Yesterday was designated to clean out the storage and move it to the warehouse down the road, so I showed up bright and early to help out. ¨Oh no,¨ they told me, ¨don´t worry yourself¨. But I insisted, then the 7 of us, with an occasional extra pair of hands, worked for at lest 4 hours straight, carrying boxes, old engine parts and god knows what else from the storage room to the truck, driving down the road, unloading, and coming back . . . 5 times. It was heavy stuff, but we worked through it together. Afterwards they admitted to me they had been shocked I was willing to do manual labor like that, carrying boxes and whatnot, and I didn´t even complain about how heavy it was. Shock and amazement, women sometimes are competent. It´s been really fun working on the construction of the library with all these gruff old men. They´ve started making fun of some of the guys who have slacked off the job, saying how much better this gringa is. I´m taking off for a few weeks to finish my Quechua workshop and to meet up with the other volunteers for reconnect to talk about our projects and experiences thus far, and I´m sad not to be able to keep up the pace and motivation on construction. I trust Don Pepe to be in charge in the meantime, continuing to get things set. When I get back we´ll finish painting, and be able to open up for the community.

February

This past week was spent in Colca, an area in the Andes above Arequipa City. Eight of the nine volunteers all traveled to be together for part one of a Quechua workshop. Quechua is one of the primary indigenous languages of Peru, continuing part of the rich Incan history. By the end of the week we were able to go around town meeting people in Quechua and buying things in the market with our new skills. Just the simple “Allilanchu?” (How are you?) would get the senoras all excited that we knew some Quechua (at which point they would start babbling on in a language we todavia do not understand). It was a good week.

My boss, Emilia, came down for Lima to see how things have been going in Arequipa yesterday. Although all my perfectly constructed plans went to caca the afternoon before she arrived (i.e. the police chief left, the class I was supposed to teach was turned into ‘day of sports’ and the gobernadora with whom I had project plans was asked to leave office), things ended up going well. I was able to propose plans for starting a library with the mayor, and it looks that we’ll be getting that under way in the next few weeks. I also have a club for adultos mayors, a project to bring agua potable to town, and a club de adolescents. In a meeting for the latter today we had a waterballoon fight in the plaza to demonstrate how they need to put on more sunscreen after going swimming in the summer. It was pretty hilarious.

I’ve got a lot of things being brought to my plate. I’m really glad, because a lot of what is missing in the community is not the idea of the project, but the organization to get the ball rolling. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going.